A Few of My Favorite Things…(well, 5, actually).

I’ve been reading great books and they are helping me re-focus on SIMPLIFYING.

Simplifying life has been a journey of mine that I am still and will always be on. Sometimes, I will stray off my path yet I will always find my way back.

In the spirit of the holidays and me finding my way back to my main path, I want to share a few of my favorite things over the next few days.

Favorite Thing #1:

Today, I will share with you the lovely Carrie Contey. I stumbled across her work on my first solo trip (I ran away for 3 days!) to Oregon to visit my soul sister.

I was listening to an interview with her that was part of a parenting summit. Back then, parenting was my big topic of interest as mainstream parenting didn’t feel right and my oldest has always danced to the beat of his own drum.

Anyway, her voice and her philosophies resonated to my core. She offered a one year program and hubby and I signed up…4 years in a row. That program changed our lives. It was so much more than parenting…it was more about person hood. We have learned so much about ourselves and human relationships. Her program was a huge component of simplifying our lives.

She taught me about self-care, boundaries, the triune brain, etc. I have had so many epiphanies while participating in her program. With the foundational awareness and life skills she taught me, I continue with my epiphanies.

Her program is what sparked Keep It Simple.

So, Carrie, you and Evolve are the first of my few favorite things.

While she no longer offers her one year program, she now offers a daily e-mail of her goodness with journal prompts if you want to check it out:

This was the book I perused at my soul sister’s house while on that first solo trip in Oregon.

I remember picking up this book while being in her quiet, peaceful and empty house (she was getting the kids off to school). The feelings of peace, relaxation, centered-ness as well as a complete knowing of who I am washed over my soul while I browsed that book. I remember those feelings vividly.

It was telling me something my core knew but my brain had not completely wrapped itself around yet:

“I don’t have to race in the rat race. I have a choice.”

I can choose.

*deep cleansing breath*

What a relief that was to read and learn about a totally different approach to living life that resonated with my core more than the life I was currently surviving.

I’ve not mastered the art just yet since I’m undoing years of programming, but I have made the choice to practice making life simpler.

Choice is the core message of Keep It Simple. Life has it’s own chaos that we have no control over. What we have control over are our choices.

The key question to ask is:

Are we making choices that are aligned with our core or do we make choices that are aligned with what outside influences dictate?

Simplifying our options helps the process of making choices a more intentional and self-aligned process.

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The Simple Living Guide feels like home to me. The author speaks my language. The content helps me get clearer on my being.

I enjoy sharing things that I love with people that may benefit from them.

I hope you can check it out. Even if it is just a few pages. It only took a few pages to spark my life changing shift. Maybe something magical will happen for you, too✨

Favorite Thing #3:

Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s “Gift From the Sea” was a book I picked up during my phase of “women’s journey” books (ie Eat, Pray, Love).

I just couldn’t get enough of reading fictional and non fictional books about women shifting from the chaos of life and finding their own wise souls.

Well, Anne Morrow Lindbergh was already a wise soul that journaled her ponderings while on a solo beach get away.

Her writings were of being a woman in modern society and the expectations of, what’s really important and what really isn’t, and how she originally felt alone in her feelings and thoughts but found, as she spoke with more women, that was actually not the case. I found it interesting how much of the expectations then were similar to what I hear now (mostly self expectations).

She writes of the ebb and flow of life, just as the tide of the sea ebbs and flows.

I talk about determining what is essential in your life, focusing on that and eliminating the rest. This guy has it dialed up to 11.

We have SO much nonsense clouding our judgement. When we start clearing it out then we start gaining clarity on what is essential which then guides us to clear more out. We clear, fine tune, course correct, clear, fine tune, course correct….

I hope you find it essential to simplify and minimize in 2019 and find this list a good launch pad for your endeavors.

Please reach out to me if you have any questions or need any guidance/mentorship.